“It’s very hard to just play a normal playthrough now,” Dan Gheesling says

Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree

(Image credit: FromSoftware / Bandai Namco)

The Soulsborne community is packed with people determined to make difficult games even harder, but that has its consequences, as one Elden Ring player fresh off their latest challenge run victory admits that taking on trials like his recent Shadow of the Erdtree playthrough have “ruined normal gaming” for him.

Last year, streamer Dan Gheesling embarked on a grand quest in Shadow of the Erdtree, aiming to complete the whole thing without using the DLC’s Scadutree Fragments (essential to boost your attack and resistances in the expansion), resin to craft weapon-buffing greases, or leveling up his vigor stat for more HP. It’s definitely not the way FromSoftware intended anyone to play, and his 423-hour playtime and 15,522 deaths prove it, but after finally finishing the run a few days ago, he’s already on the lookout for his next challenge.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Gheesling says he reckons “at some point, I will go through all of the Souls games with no HP,” but after such a lengthy run, “I’m looking forward to doing some very difficult but shorter challenges. So that’s what we’re cooking up right now, before we take on the next big chunk.”

He’s not limiting himself to Soulsborne games, mind you, noting that he likes to play “anything that is wildly challenging” since it’s fun to watch, and wants to beat TrickShot Simulator in the future. Clearly, that constant aim to take on anything grueling has become somewhat baked into the streamer’s mindset, as he admits: “The one thing I will say that these challenges have done, it’s kind of ruined normal gaming. It’s very hard to just play a normal playthrough now of a game, because, to me, a lot of the joy is in the difficulty.”

Gheesling certainly has more patience than me, anyway – the hours I spent fighting Promised Consort Radahn with the stat boosts the streamer denied himself were plenty enough for me, and I can’t imagine the anguish of losing to him over 3,000 times. Despite it all, though, he remained totally determined throughout: “Once I start a challenge, there’s really no giving up.”